Jon Juaristi

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Jon Juaristi Linacero (born in Bilbao, in 1951) is a poet, essayist, and Spanish translator in Castilian and Basque. At the moment he resides in Madrid.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Education and employment 1.2 Early political activism 1.3 Current political activity 2 Poetry 3 Essays 4 Prizes

[edit] Biography

[edit] Education and employment

A doctor in Romance philology, he studied at the University of Deusto and in Seville.

He has occupied the chair of Spanish Philology at the University of the Basque Country, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at New York University, and has been titular professor of the Chair of Contemporary Thought of the Cañada Blanch Foundation at the University of Valencia. Juaristi also worked as a docent and researcher in Austin and at El Colegio de México. He directed the National Library of Spain from 2001 to 2004, and then left that position to direct the Cervantes Institute until the socialist triumph of March 14, 2004.

[edit] Early political activism

He involved himself in the movement against Francoism, and he militated in favor of in the labored split of the well-known terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA).

Before (during his adolescence at the end of the 1960s), he militated in an incipient ETA. His most memorable action there was to put Carlist circles in contact with ETA, facing the regime of Franco, because of the expulsion of Carlos Hugo de Borbón Parma (a pretender to the Spanish throne).

During the 1970s he left political activity almost completely and dedicated himself to his academic career.

In 1980, he affiliated himself with the Communist Party of Spain during its process of unification with Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE), which would give rise to a new social-democratic group that actively rejected the violence. He left it in 1986, disappointed when EE disagreed with the socialists after the autonomic elections of 1986. In 1987 Juaristi joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)—from “ethical considerations,” according to his own words^{[citation needed]}, after one of ETA's attacks against a Casa Cuartel of the Spanish Civil Guard. Later, he declared in his memoirs that the fact that the two groups were persuaded to affiliate was a testimonial gesture—spurred by the attack of grupúsculo abertzale, the Mendeku commando, against the Casa del Pueblo of the PSOE of Portugalete. Several socialist militants had been burned to death then.

[edit] Current political activity

His critical voice against ethnicism and the invention and manipulation of myths, in particular on the part of Basque nationalism, has gained media visibility through numerous articles, essays, and speeches. Juaristi's stance against terrorism, and his support to the ETA victims, was further made visible by the formation of the Foro Ermua (Forum of Ermua, a conservative anti-terrorism organization) in 1997. In the last decade he has been defined, in different interviews from mass media, as a “Spanish nationalist.” At the end of 1999, after the ETA announcement of which it gave by finalized the truce, and noticed of the seriousness of the threats against hers, he decided to leave his position in the University and to leave the Basque Country definitively.

Juaristi converted to Judaism for reasons more personal than religious, and dedicates a number of his articles to the criticism of antisemitism (and anti-Zionism, which he considers to be inherently antisemitic). He has also written in defense of Israel's right to be its own state.

[edit] Poetry

Juaristi's poetic voice is influenced by the Basque poet (and his great friend) Gabriel Aresti, and by the Basque-born, Spanish-writing writers Miguel de Unamuno and Blas de Otero—as well as by the irony of the poet and Anglo-American essayist Wystan H. Auden. His poetry frequently evokes the mood of the Bilbao of his childhood and youth, and its tone is disillusioned, bitter, urban and intelligent.

His works of poetry have been published as the following:

• Diario de un poeta recién cansado ("Diary of a poet recently tired") (1986).
• Suma de varia intención ("Amount of varying intention") (1987).
• Arte de marear ("Art to annoy") (1988).
• Los paisajes domésticos ("The domestic landscapes") (1992).
• Mediodía ("Noon") (1993).
• Tiempo desapacible ("Unpleasant time") (1996).
• Poesía reunida ("Reunited poetry") (1986-1999) (2001).
• Prosas en verso ("Prose in verse") (2002).

[edit] Essays

In Juaristi's essays analysis is a habitual subject, from a psychological and sociological perspective inspired by Carl Jung and Leon Polyakov, and the historical and mythical roots of European nationalism, particularly Basque nationalism. Philological references are found frequently in the texts, as well as references and anecdotes which deal with authors, subjects and works of occultism. These are usually mentioned with distance and irony.

• Euskararen Ideologiak (1976).
• El linaje de Aitor. La invención de la tradición vasca (1984).
• Literatura vasca (1987).
• Arte en el País Vasco (1987). Con Kosme M. de Barañano y Javier González de Durana.
• Vicente de Arana (1990).
• Vestigios de Babel. Para una arqueología de los nacionalismos españoles (1992).
• Auto de Terminación: raza, nación y violencia en el País Vasco (1994). Artículos: en colaboración con Juan Aranzadi y Patxo Unzueta.
• La Europa (cultural) de los pueblos: voz y forma (1994). En colaboración con otros autores.
• El chimbo expiatorio (la invención de la tradición bilbaína, 1876-1939) (1994).
• El bucle melancólico. Historias de nacionalistas vascos (1997).
• Sacra nemesis. Nuevas historias de nacionalistas vascos (1999).
• Sermo humilis: poesía y poética (1999).
• El bosque originario (2000).
• La tribu atribulada. El Nacionalismo Vasco explicado a mi padre (2002).
• El reino del ocaso (2004).

[edit] Prizes

• 1988: Ícaro de Literatura.
• 1997: Espasa de Ensayo por El bucle melancólico.
• 1998: XV Premio de Periodismo Francisco Cerecedo.
• 1998: Premio Nacional de Literatura por El bucle melancólico.
• 2000: Fastenrath.